For her challenge against Adrian, Noelle made sure that the football pitch was free of all the students who were busy playing on it, and now that they were done, the students were free to return to what they were doing.
With the challenge done, the two made their way to Eric and Oscar who were standing behind the goalpost on the other side.
"This was very clear to me after that match but I have to say…" Oscar paused as he moved closer to Adrian. "You are something else." He added before putting his arm around his shoulder.
"Yes." Eric nodded. "There are very few who can hold Noelle down like this in a crossbar challenge from the halfway line."
"Seriously?" Adrian asked, quite amazed.
"Mm." Oscar nodded. "Other than you, there's one senior, but he's leaving soon, so it's not important. Then, there's Henry."
"Henry?"
"He's a classmate, don't worry you'll meet him soon."
"You might only be slightly better than him if I have to say," Noelle commented.
"Oh." Adrian nodded slowly.
"The last person is a junior but he's not here today." Oscar continued. "But you'll also meet him soon."
"I have a question," Adrian uttered as he turned to Noelle. He felt something was wrong.
"Shoot," Noelle responded.
"Both of the people he mentioned, were they in the squad that faced Ravenwood Academy?" He inquired.
"No."
"Then who did we play against?"
Noelle's initial response to that was a smile before she proceeded to cross her arms.
"That's why I said you weren't aware of the whole situation. As far as I am concerned, the only notable names in that team were Oscar here and him over there."
She turned to point at Savi who was still sitting on the far end away from them.
"They were the only ones in the team who knew what they were doing in the team. But what can they really do if nine of their teammates don't know what they're doing?"
"So, you're saying that we could have faced a stronger team?"
"Probably yeah." She nodded. "I believe they would have still lost but at least they wouldn't get battered like the squad you faced."
'So she believes that they do have good players.'
"What happened then?" Adrian inquired. "Why didn't they get to play?"
"Ughh…. let's just say they ran into a problem and couldn't go."
She clearly avoided the question there and now Adrian was even more curious about what happened.
However, he didn't ask her again as that would make it seem like he was forcing her to answer.
'If it's something that actually happened in this school then finding out won't be that hard.'
"Anyway, that's the gist of it," Noelle concluded before bringing her tablet up to her gaze.
"I see." Adrian nodded. "So, what are you planning to do now?"
"For now, we have to set up a team for our match against Helway Academy. We have to beat them in a two-legged tie to make it to the qualifiers group stage." She disclosed.
"Set up a team? So you haven't…."
Before he could finish that statement, Oscar, with his hand around his shoulder, turned him around.
"Can you guys talk more about this another day?" He sighed. "I thought you were here to look around."
"Yeah."
'But looking around was just an excuse to see the pitch.'
"Good, let me show you around then."
Before Adrian knew it, he was being dragged further down by Oscar who insisted on showing him around.
He seemed quite reluctant to leave as he turned to Noelle for a moment but he still had to leave with Oscar.
'I can't believe their team is actually non-existent. For the moment at least.'
Just further down, away from the football pitch, was a smaller pitch divided by a volleyball net.
There were two teams of six players each on both sides of the net, with the other students watching from the side.
The two stopped to watch the game for a while as Oscar talked about how volleyball was more influential and well-respected in their school compared to football.
Adrian paid attention to everything he said but he didn't seem to be as interested as he was when checking out the football pitch.
Further down, away from the volleyball, was a road intersection, each leading to two very similar buildings.
Three-storey buildings not as big as the academic building but still big buildings.
According to Oscar, the building to the right was the female dormitory and the one to the left was the male dormitory.
That was a revelation that seemed to surprise Adrian.
"Wait, you're saying this is a boarding school?" He asked, his gaze fixated on Oscar.
"Yeah, you didn't know that?"
"Not really." He shook his head.
"Well, other than for the third year students, which is going to be us by September, it's not compulsory." Oscar disclosed.
"So, basically it's compulsory for me."
"Yeah, that's pretty much it." He shrugged. "But I must say it's not bad to live here, I've been doing it since my first year. We might end up being roommates as my room is currently missing one more person."
"I can't really say if that is a good thing until I've seen the other roommates."
"Trust me, you'll like them."
There weren't many students at the dormitory as many students had already gone home given that there was nothing to do in the school at the moment.
Adrian later got the explanation about why they were still at school while most other schools had already vacated.
Sino Academy had a tradition where the students were allowed to be free and do whatever they wanted to do for a week after the school examinations. Thus, the week was dubbed The freedom week.
After that, the students would be allowed to go home.
"The freedom week might seem compulsory for the boarding students but if you have a good reason to go home, no one's going to stop you," Oscar added. "Also, even without a reason as long as your parents call, no one's going to stop you."
The two had just left the male dormitory area. Oscar wanted to show Adrian around more inside the dormitory but the hostel master wouldn't let Adrian in as he didn't have an access card.
Feeling disappointed, Oscar had no other choice but to show him around other places.
To the left of the dormitory was the school cafeteria, a big hall-like building capable of containing all the students of the Academy at once.
Just further up, away from the cafeteria, was the school library, which was well-equipped and stuffed with books filling up all the shelves.
After that, the two walked around a bit more before Adrian decided that it was time to go home.
"To be honest, the school's not that bad," Adrian muttered as he headed toward the gate. "But…"
"But what?"
He felt a bit startled by Noelle suddenly showing up by his side like that, but he had a good hand on his reaction, so she didn't really notice.
"Where did you come from?"
"I was standing over there." She responded, pointing to the side.
"You were waiting for me?"
"Mm." She nodded.
"Do you need anything?"
Just after asking that question, he continued walking toward the gate while Noelle followed from beside him.
"I told you earlier that we didn't have any team assembled yet. However, I have assembled the players needed to form a team; we just have to figure out which position to put everyone in."
"Okay." Adrian nodded.
"Well, the team's required to start training from tomorrow and we'll have to deal with assigning positions then, so…."
"You want to ask if I'll be there?" Adrian interjected.
"Yes." She replied.
"What time does it start?"
"Seven in the morning."
Getting that response, he turned to her with a smile.
"I'll see you tomorrow then."
With that said, he dashed toward the gate which happened to be open at the moment.
Just before exiting through the gate, he turned around to find her waving him goodbye with her left hand and seeing that he couldn't help but smile.
'We've only met today but she feels somewhat like an old friend.' He thought as he returned her wave.